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Australia extends COOL to unpackaged meat

Australian officials have voted to extend the country’s mandatory country-of-origin labelling (COOL) rules to include unpackaged meat.

The decision, made by the Legislative and Governance Forum on Food Regulation, means the existing requirement for COOL on most packaged food and unpackaged pork will be extended to include unpackaged beef, sheep and chicken.

It follows concerns raised over the inconsistency of country-of-origin rules in the recent Blewitt report, which reviewed Australian food labelling law and policies.

Minister for Agriculture Senator Joe Ludwig, said the new rules would benefit the Australian meat industry. “Consumers will now be able to make informed decisions about whether they are buying Australian products in their supermarket meat section or at their local butcher,” he said. “That’s good news for consumers and even better news for Aussie producers.”

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